Snap Inc. trims 10% of workforce
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Social media company Snap Inc. (Snap), the parent company of popular messaging app Snapchat, announced plans to lay off approximately 10% of its global workforce to “reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration.”
Most of the job cuts, equating to over 500 employees across Snap’s operations, are expected to happen in Q1 2024.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Snap cited the need to “restructure our team” to focus on key priorities and have the capacity to invest in future growth.
“As a result, we currently estimate that we will incur pre-tax charges in the range of $55 million to $75 million, primarily consisting of severance and related costs, and other charges, of which $45 million to $55 million are expected to be future cash expenditures,” the filing stated.
This round of layoffs follows Snap’s 20% staff cut in August 2022, impacting around 1,200 jobs at the time. The company also cut less than 20 roles in November.
Business Insider reported that Snap began laying off dozens of employees on Friday ahead of a company-wide restructuring announcement expected this week.
The Information stated that the layoffs have included some senior staff such as Sam Corrao Clanon, director of content; Ding Zhou, vice president of content engineering; and Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, vice president of platform partnerships.
The layoffs at Snap come amid a broader trend in the tech industry, with major players like Amazon, Alphabet, Paypal, and Salesforce also announcing layoffs in January.
Notably, remote workers appear to bear the brunt of Snap’s cuts, reflecting the company’s push for increased office presence over the past year.
Aside from Snap, multinational technology corporation International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) has instructed all managers in the U.S. to report in person to an office or client location at least three days per week. Employees who fail to comply must “separate from IBM.”
Furniture retailer Wayfair also stated that remote employees would be more affected by layoffs as they believe staff should be in the office most days.
An analysis of two million employees by Live Data Technologies found that 10% of fully remote workers were laid off in 2023, compared to just 7% of hybrid and in-office staff.
The tech sector, with its broader adoption of remote work, is driving much of the data. According to data aggregation website Layoffs.fyi, over 240,000 employees from the tech segment were laid off globally in 2023, and over 33,000 from 132 tech companies so far this year.
